M'town baseball drops 4-2 decision to Fortuna

FORTUNA -- Sloppy play on defense in the first inning hurt the Middletown Mustangs in a 4-2 loss to the Fortuna Huskies on Wednesday night in the opening round of the North Coast Section Division IV baseball playoffs at Newburg Field in Fortuna.

Middletown (12-13) committed two of its three errors during Fortuna's three-run first inning. The Huskies scored one of those runs on a passed ball.

Fortuna (17-8), the No. 4 seed in the original 16-team field, moves on to the quarterfinal round and will host No. 5 Clear Lake (20-5) on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Newburg Field.

"The boys played hard, they made some great plays, but a couple of errors in the first hurt us," Middletown coach Brad Holt said. "And we had some miscues on the offensive end later in the game."

Middletown, the No. 13 seed, took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on a Cody Chorjel RBI single. After Fortuna went ahead 3-1 in the bottom of the inning, the Mustangs closed to 3-2 on a RBI single off the bat of Brett Pike in the top of the second, one of three hits on the day for the sophomore and No. 2 hitter in the Middletown batting order.

"He really played well," Holt said of Pike, who had struggled in recent games. "I thought about moving him down (in the order). I'm glad I didn't."

Missing signs on a hit-and-run and bunt-and-run later in the game didn't help the Mustangs' bid to rally.

Losing pitcher Josiah Amos went the distance, allowing five hits, striking out four and walking three. Stephen Amos went 2-for-3.